[From the archive of the Kuzbas]


...accordingly it is necessary to send delegates first for inspection on site of
land parcels for settlement, forest plots, mines, factories, etc. for taking on lease." 
Approved. Council of People's Commissars, Lenin.

Signatures needed from Martens and the People's Commissariat of Labor; signatures from Bogdanov and Chicherin would also be desirable.

1 The Society for Technical Assistance to Soviet Russia was organized in America in May 1919, had branches in a number of U.S. cities and in Canada. On the tasks and activities of the society see Lenin, Works, vol. XXVII, p. 546, note 148.

2 G. V. Chicherin—People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

---

9050

RECORD OF A CONVERSATION WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF AN 
AMERICAN WORKERS' COLONY.
19. IX [1921]

200 american lumber-workers are here in the Emigration House 
(three weeks they are here — come through Siberia). Only few have 
found work.

[45] 30 must be sent immediately to Nadezhdinsk Works, 15 to 
Kuznets Basin in order to construct timber camps, & if we can 
fit 200 more they will go also. (They must be fully outfitted)

I) Connection of Nadezhdinsk Works — a) repair; b) construction, 
tractors and implements for agricultural production.

II) In total 300,000 $ without any monetary disbursements.

---

9067

LETTER TO V. V. KUIBYSHEV.

19. IX. 1921

Comrade Kuibyshev!

I have just had a visit from
Rutgers,
Calvert
and Haywood,

* 200 American lumber-workers are in the emigrant house (they have been here three weeks—came through Siberia). Only a few have found work.

30 are to be sent immediately to Nadezhdinsk Works, 15 to Kuznets Basin, in order to build wooden barracks, if they can be ready, all 200 will go as well (They must be fully outfitted). Ed.

** dollars. Ed.


representatives of a group of the American workers' colony, which 
wishes to take over the Nadezhdinsk Works and a number of enterprises in 
the Kuznets Basin.

They are asking that their representative 
(with an interpreter) 
be personally present at the Council of Labor and Defense on Friday. I think this should be permitted.

Furthermore, I draw your attention and ask you to inform all 
members of the commission and subcommissions of the following:

(1) The Nadezhdinsk Works, in their view, is linked both economically and 
technically with the group of enterprises in Kuzbas, inasmuch as it 
will furnish tractors for their agricultural farms; tractors and all manner of 
agricultural implements for the peasants; repair of machines for their group's 
enterprises in Kuzbas [and so on], equipment for water transport, communication with Siberia, and so forth.

(2) In Kuzbas they are taking 12,000 desyatinas of land and a number of 
enterprises, wishing to create a large and complete economic whole.

(3) They are asking in total 300,000 
dollars in cash. Any other opinion is a mistake.

(4) They want, in addition, grain and clothing in order to set in motion the necessary 
construction work immediately. Work must 
begin this very winter, so that by spring 1922 it will be possible to complete it.

(5) They emphasize that they will create a firm administration of their workers' group; and they will select the entire group (3,000—6,000 workers) from the best workers, mostly young and single, who have practical experience in the corresponding industry, 
[and who] have lived in climatic conditions similar to the Russian ones (Canada 
or the northern United States).

(6) They want direct 
dependence 
on the Council of Labor and Defense. 
Something in the nature of an autonomous state trust formed from a workers' association.

Incidentally, they say that here in the "emigrant 
house" there live 200 American lumber-workers. The majority 
without work. They are yearning for work. Send up to 30 of them to Nadezhdinsk Works and 15 to Kuzbas immediately, providing them with full equipment 
and provisions, and they will at once begin construction of wooden 
barracks. (And then all 200 will go as well). They are urgently requesting that the dispatch be expedited.

They say that Gerbel (? I did not catch the English pronunciation exactly) from the Industrial Bureau of the Urals gave them oral consent to their plan, and the Siberians (Siberian Industrial Bureau) gave written consent.
